John Updike, 1932-2009
John Updike has died, of lung cancer. You can read the New York Times obit here.
I'm sad. I didn't even know he was ill. The obituary is one of those that has been on file for awhile and so doesn't talk a lot about the circumstances of his death.
Love him or hate him, he was a huge literary figure and he published over 50 books throughout his career. The Times referred to him as "prolific, even compulsive."
Not a bad epitaph, considering that so many of us struggle to even get words on the page.
(And, for those of you who thought I had gone to the same place as Updike, I assure you I'm still here. I've got four, count 'em, four posts, written out to put up. Circumstances in my life has been a bit, um, overwhelming shall we say. My mother in a nursing home, my daughter deciding to get married in less than a month, a trip to Chicago for AWP to moderate a panel in a couple weeks and three ghostwriting projects. Oh, and I just adopted my Mom's ancient, frail cat, who thinks the blind pug is a big scary beast out to eat her for breakfast when the truth is I'm not even sure he knows she exists.)
rainer
well it is always sad when a person dies wether he has written zero books or 100. At least his 50 books remains and I hope the will not be forgotten 100 years from now on…Happy blogging
Hema.
I was sad too when I heard that John Updike had passed on, more so because it came out of the blue. About fifteen years ago I had the pleasure of attending one of his lectures and he came across as a humorous, kindly man full of interesting anencdotes and jokes about himself.
The NYT obit was informative, if a bit dated. Check out the op ed essay by Lorrie Moore today (The Complete Updike) – its more illuminating and definitely more revealing of the great writer and human being he was.
Hema.
Theresa111
Hearts and hugs to you, your family, especially your sweet Mother, her cat and your dog, too. Call upon Divine Love, Divine Intelligence and Divine Order … in this order.
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